This practice was precisely reminded by the amendment to the Education Act prepared by the conservatives and adopted by the previous term of the Seimas regarding the Basic Education Achievement Test (PUPP) threshold. If you don’t meet the standard – you go to “vocational school.” It’s a pity that such an attitude has remained acceptable in politicians’ minds to this day. It is no secret that there are still gymnasium administrations that “increase” students’ motivation to study with exactly such threats. The choice of vocational school should be conscious, not forced.
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Modern pedagogy is based not on the principle of the whip and intimidation
We recognize the child’s emotions, difficulties, allow them to be themselves, and educate by guiding, strengthening, and providing help. Vocational schools have finally become popular because students and their parents have been given the right to choose them voluntarily, understanding the opportunities they offer and the quality of their work.
And now there was a desire again to segregate who is worthy of finishing gymnasium and who is not. Our society already has too much segregation, elitism, and it is very harmful to encourage this in education – although, let’s be honest, we have already “advanced” too far in this area, despite the fact that the education system by its very nature is open to everyone. Educational segregation is the most direct path to societal division, although we all understand how harmful it is.
Do politicians really have the right, as if raising a thumb up or down in an arena, to decide a young person’s future by one result – without seeing their individual situation and not even assessing why they failed?
The greatest risk – after one failure, we would simply lose part of the sixteen-year-olds
If PUPP became a mandatory threshold for obtaining basic education, we would not only close the doors of gymnasiums to some sixteen-year-olds – we would essentially take away their clear path to continue studies.
Having completed the basic education program but not obtaining basic education due to PUPP, a young person would no longer be able to enter vocational training programs conducted together with secondary education. And these programs today make up more than 80 percent of all vocational training offerings.
Such a student would only have access to level II qualification vocational training programs. There are very few of these in Lithuania – only 20. They are mostly intended for students with special educational needs and persons serving sentences in places of deprivation of liberty. In the regions, the choice of such programs is very limited – in 2025-2026, admission to level II qualification programs was conducted in only 29 municipalities out of 60.
The numbers clearly show the scale of the problem. This year, about 5,000 students failed the mathematics PUPP. If PUPP became a mandatory threshold for obtaining basic education, most of them would only have access to level II qualification vocational training programs, which have only about 1,000 places across Lithuania. This means that the vocational training system physically could not accept all these students. For some of them, the state simply would no longer have anywhere to offer to continue their studies.
Therefore, the question is not: will all these students choose vocational training. The question is – where will they be able to study at all.
And here lies the greatest risk.
Lithuanian laws no longer oblige sixteen-year-olds to continue studies. If a young person can no longer study in gymnasium, and vocational training is practically inaccessible to them, the state has no mechanism to help them stay in the education system.
We would simply send part of the sixteen-year-olds into nowhere.
This is not just statistics. Behind every number is a specific child, a specific family, and a specific story. A young person who perhaps failed one day, in one test, but who needs not closed doors, but adults’ belief and help.
However, the reality is even more complicated.
It is often said: “let them go to vocational school.” But vocational training cannot be considered a simple alternative to gymnasium.
Even choosing vocational training, a young person, wanting to obtain a higher qualification in the future, would have to complete the secondary education program, pass PUPP, and receive a graduation certificate. In other words, the PUPP problem does not disappear – it is only postponed to a later stage.
Moreover, it is often even more difficult to do this in vocational school. A student has to study general education subjects and a profession at the same time. Therefore, for a weaker student, we create not an easier path but an even greater challenge.
Vocational school must not become a punishment for one failed test. It must be a conscious and valuable choice of a young person.
If we really want more young people to choose vocational training, we must strengthen its prestige and attractiveness, not turn it into a forced choice after failure.
The consequences would also be felt by regional gymnasiums
The consequences would not only be felt by individual students.
If some tenth graders could no longer continue studies in gymnasiums, in some municipalities there simply would not be enough students for the III and IV gymnasium classes. Preliminary calculations show that such a risk would arise in as many as 16 regional gymnasiums.
This would mean not only a weaker school network. It would mean that even more children in the regions would have to travel tens of kilometers to the nearest gymnasium or give up their chosen learning path.
One test is not enough to judge a student’s entire potential
The PUPP threshold would link a student’s future only to the results of two subjects – Lithuanian language and mathematics.
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However, children are not the same.
One finds mathematics harder but excels in languages, history, geography, or arts. Another has exceptional abilities in technology or natural sciences.
Does one result really have to erase all their other abilities, efforts, and dreams?
Sometimes the result is determined by very human reasons – family difficulties, emotional experiences, adolescent crisis, or simply a very hard day.
Children are not numbers in a table. They grow at different paces.
Data shows that students recover
The analysis by the National Education Agency showed that failing PUPP is not a reliable indicator predicting a student’s future achievements.
30 percent of students who failed the Lithuanian language and literature PUPP passed the state graduation exam in this subject two years later and scored 40–60 points. Almost 22 percent of students who failed the mathematics PUPP later passed the mathematics state graduation exam and scored from 40 to 81 points.
There are students who failed PUPP but scored about 80 points in the state graduation exam two years later.
Failing PUPP is not a verdict on abilities. It is a signal that the student needs help.
Instead of selection – a real support system
I am convinced that the state’s response to a student’s failure must be not punishment but help.
Therefore, instead of selection, we are introducing a national support system aimed at helping the student recover and successfully continue learning.
An individual 4–6 week learning achievement improvement plan will be prepared for each student who fails PUPP, with state funding already allocated. The plan will be developed at the school according to the student’s specific learning gaps, and the ministry will prepare clear examples of its implementation.
The National Education Agency will create a free network of remote consultations where the strongest teachers of various subjects from all over Lithuania will consult students.
Short task sets and video explanations will be prepared for topics where students most often make mistakes. All materials will be easily accessible in one place so that both students and teachers can use them.
We will not forget emotional well-being either. Together with municipalities, we will strengthen emotional support for students and their families because sometimes emotional difficulties become the cause of failure.
The support system is focused not on managing consequences after failure but on early detection of learning difficulties and timely help. State budget funds have already been allocated for this purpose, and special attention will be given to implementing these measures over the next two years.
The state’s duty is not to take away opportunities
I am convinced that the education system must notice as early as possible where a child is struggling and help them overcome that difficulty.
It must not tell a sixteen-year-old after one failure that their opportunities are over.
Sometimes there are only two years between failing PUPP and successfully passing the state graduation exam. And adults who did not slam the door but helped.
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